As far as show openers go, Sherlock was right up there. A fast pace (too fast in places), slick visuals and an intriguing plot all added up to a pilot that rivalled the first ever episode of Lost back in the summer of 2005. When you compare the budgets of the 2 shows it makes Sherlock even more impressive.

Amazingly the idea to set Sherlock in modern times worked, it had disaster written all over it but somehow they pulled it off. Maybe in these troubled times we need to know a nut-job genius is out there watching our back like London’s answer to Batman.

Not everything worked however, sometimes they tried too hard to tick all the Holmes-like boxes and fit into his new 2010 surroundings, the Nicotine patches instead of narcotics for example were just plain daft.

It might have passed most people by as unimportant but the highlight for me was the slick typography that splashed across the screen at several key scenes. It gave my brain an important hand catching up with Sherlock’s quick thinking. My particular favourite being the spinning dirty/clean text revolving around one unfortunate victims wedding ring. It reminded me of the early days of Heroes when Hiro and Ando used to talk in Japanese but the subtitles would become part of the visuals, almost like an extra actor fitting into the surroundings on the screen. Heroes unfortunately got lazy and dropped the styling like they dropped the ball, lets hope Sherlock keeps it up.

Sherlock himself was rather annoying, but then Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be rather annoying. The acting was spot on from a very strong case with Benedict Cumberbatch in particular showing he can handle the lead role. Although on a couple of occasions I did find myself believing I might be watching Doctor Who, with the mannerism and comments that Holmes made. Not really Cumberbatch’s fault seeing as the show is the brainchild of Doctor Who chief Steven Moffat and writer Mark Gatiss. The League of Gentlemen star Gatiss also made a nice little cameo as Sherlock’s brother Mycroft played as the quintessential old school English odd-ball he does so well.

Whether or not Sherlock will last the pace shall be seen over the next couple of weeks but with overnight ratings at 7.5 million it seems like the BBC have another cult hit on their hands.